ABSTRACT
Valvular heart disease can be treated in a variety of ways: valve replacement, in which an artificial heart valve is implanted surgically to replace an abnormal valve and valve repair, in which a regurgitant valve is corrected surgically, preserving the original valve rather than replacing. It also include: percutaneous techniques, which include percutaneous balloon valvuloplasty and, more recently, transcatheter aortic valve implantation. Each year approximately 6000 people in the UK undergo surgery to implant a prosthetic heart valve. Prosthetic valves fall into one of two categories: mechanical valves and biological valves. A mechanical valve consists of three parts: the sewing ring, the occluder and the retaining mechanism. The advantage of mechanical valves is their long-term durability. As with mechanical valves, biological valves have a smaller effective orifice area than the native valves they replace. A number of percutaneous techniques have been developed for mitral valve repair in mitral regurgitation, but one of the most commonly used is the MitraClip™ procedure.
